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Salamand
Information The Salamand (pronounced /ˈsælˌ.ɑː.mænd/) is Kesari's leading predator, growing to lengths of over 60ft. It was once used as the ultimate weapon of war by the Amphorian, and helped turn the tide of the Amphorian-Technarian War in their favor. They are tremendously vicious animals, as well as stubborn; it is notoriously hard to control them at all; even the Amphorian pretty much can usually only "suggest" things to them on the battlefield, and with many casualties to any and all in the vicinity. Salamands are sometimes referred to as "Kesarine Dragons", although this is more a nickname than anything else, and is far from scientific in origin. Scientific Classification *'Domain:' Eukaryota (Complex Organisms) *'Kingdom:' Animalia (Animals) *'Subkingdom:' Eumetazoa (Tissue into Germ Layers) *'Superphylum:' Deuterostomia (Blastophore becomes Anus) *'Phylum:' Chordata (Animals with Notochords & their Descendants) *'Subphylum:' Vertebrata (Vertebrates) *'Infraphylum:' Gnathostomata (Jawed Vertebrates) *'Superclass:' Tetrapoda (Four-Legged Vertebrates & Their Descendants) *'Series:' Amniota (Animals possessing amniotic eggs) *'Class:' Sauropsida (Reptiles) *'Subclass:' Diapsida (Reptiles with dual fenestrae) *'Infraclass:' Unspecified *'Superorder:' Unspecified *'Order:' Unspecified *'Family:' Unspecified *'Subfamily:' Unspecified *'Infrafamily:' Unspecified *'Genus:' Unspecified (Salamands and their closest relatives) *'Species:' Unspecified (Salamand) *'Binominal Name:' Unspecified Statistics *'Species Type:' Cold-blooded Amphibious Reptilian *'Lifestyle:' Solitary Predator *'Hunt/Forage Success Rate:' 100% Hunt (80% success rate) *'Armor:' Salamands possess no true armor adaptations. *'Defenses:' Salamands possess little in the way of natural defenses, but due to their ferocity they don't really require it. What they do possess is thick skin that is hard to pierce, and a huge sail upon their backs that help regulate their body temperature, allowing them to survive in colder and even much hotter environments. *'Weapons:' A salamand's main weapon is their teeth. However, this is not in any way their only attack. They also possess a powerful tail, and are capable of breathing gouts of very hot flame. The method of how they accomplish such a feat is not widely understood, due to the difficulty of capturing one in the first place. *'Tools:' Salamands use their limbs only for walking and swimming, and do not possess anything useful for manipulation, such as opposable thumbs. *'Method of Eating:' Unspecified *'Reproductive Rate:' Sexual maturity is reached after 30 years. They breed during the wet seasons of late summer, when the waters of the swamps evaporate in large numbers, opening up tracts of land for the Salamands to set up nests. *'Gestation:' 4 years then lays eggs. *'Offspring Incubation:' 3 months after being laid before eggs hatch. *'Number of Offspring:' 7 per clutch *'Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity):' 20% -- many young salamands are the prey of other creatures, including the Hellbenders. *'Singular/Plural/Possessive:' Salamand / Salamands / Salamandan =History= Evolutionary History *''To be announced'' Role in Amphorian Mythology To the four Amphorian races of ancient times, the Salamand was believed to be a great god of destruction and chaos; however, it was also seen as the creator of fire and therefore the nurturer of intelligent species. It was because of this last role that the Amphorian peoples gave the Salamands a great amount of respect. Beyond this, each of the four Amphorian races treated the Salamands differently thanks to their different cultures. The Zalt believed that there was only one Salamand, named Salaash, who was both mother and father, as well as their children, and could split herself (it was generally referred to as a "she" despite its asexual nature) into multiple forms whenever needed, to confuse her foes from knowing which body housed the true Salaash. While she was seen as a nurturing mother, she was noted in most legends as having a terrible fury, and so the Zalts would leave a certain percentage of their food intake amounts at the end of each hunt to the local Salamand; if she took the food and did not eat the offerer, good luck was thought to be brought upon the tribe. However, if the Zalt was eaten before the food, bad luck was instead washed amongst the populace. If the food and the Zalt were eaten at relatively the same time, no luck would be wished upon them and they would have to "work for themselves" to get everything right for the next hunt. The Diplod feared the Salamands, called Kraah in the Diplod tongue, which were known to quite commonly consume Diplods, and could easily out-pace them even in deep waters, which the Diplod considered "their environment". Most of the time the Salamands were given enormous berths in ancient Diplod culture, and some of the most influential heroes of these times have great legends of them slaying a Salamand. To them, the Salamands were a race of terrible beings created from the nightmares of The Creator, who then terrorized the world. Salamands in Diplod culture could be superficially compared to the Dragons of Earth. The Massocion, being an arboreal species, were somewhat estranged from the great beasts, and so the role of the Salamand in ancient Massocion culture was heavily downplayed. The Salamands, known as the Zovva in Massocion tongue of the time, were the enforcers of nature, sent by The Creator to keep nature balanced. While they would generally hide when a Zovva passed by, they did not leave offerings or worship the beasts in any other way. The Zoaraptors saw the Salamands as great forces to be reckoned with, and sought to appease these great beasts with a warrior culture. While the Zoaraptors never took to killing any of the other four sapient races on their planet in these wars, they did keep their own numbers down in civil skirmishes between tribes -- those killed were then left as offerings to the local Salamand to show that they were serving him. Role in Lorc Mythology Like the four Amphorian races, the Lorc also saw the Salamands as a form of deity, but saw it as a monster spawned to punish the Lorc for having not succeeded well enough in what they did. This brought panic throughout their ranks when they witnessed a Salamand, and mentally forced them to work harder at their jobs. The Lorcian chieftain Throhta, who was destined to become the first self-proclaimed Lorc Emperor, was the first one to state that the Salamands were angry for the Lorcs not taking control of the lands around them. It was this belief that initially set up the Lorcian Empire that would come to inadvertently bring the Amphorian peoples together while trying to destroy them all. Despite having such a prominent role in Lorc mythology, the Salamands did not actually have an official name, and were often referred to as things such as "Great Punisher" and "They Who Shall Remain Nameless". Although the Lorc Emperors such as Ghaag sought to subjugate the Salamand race to prove to them that they had indeed taken control of the world, their inherit fears of the species as well as its notorious nature of being extremely difficult to catch led to them resorting to capturing the smaller Hellbenders instead for their inscrutable purposes. The Taming of the Great Salamands *''To be announced'' Role in The Amphorian-Technarian War *''To be announced'' Category:Somarinoa's Content Category:Spore Content Category:Kyklos Galaxy Metaseries Category:Amalgam Online Category:Species Category:Non-Sapient Species Category:Extraterrestrials Category:Carnivores Category:Domesticated Species Category:Dragons Category:NodhCohr Hierarchy Category:Kesari Inhabitants Category:Original Content Category:Original Aliens Category:Illustrated Extraterrestrials